A PLAN has been put forward to build around 60 new homes on a plant nursery site in Winchfield.

Barratt Homes wants to build the new homes at Oak Farm Nursery, in Station Road, and has been in touch with Hart District Council.

Roger Rippon, the agent acting for Barratt Homes, has applied for outline pre-application advice from the district council, which is often a pre-cursor for a full application.

As reported in The Gazette, developers value Winchfield as a site for new housing due to its rural location, its railway station and its proximity to the M3.

The site is currently used to grow specimen plants for sale to trade customers like landscape contractors, as well as a rental business for golf carts and cross-terrain vehicles.

In the application, Mr Rippon wrote: “If planning permission for residential redevelopment is granted, the owner has agreed with Barratt Homes to cease all his current operations on this part of Oak Farm Nursery at an early date.

“Barratt Homes would then demolish all the existing buildings with a view to implementing a residential planning permission without delay.”

He added that the remainder of the nursery land would “probably continue to be used by the present owner for field-grown plants on a much-reduced scale.”

A new access road would also be built in Station Road.